Chinese heroes; being a record of persecutions endured by native Christians in the Boxer uprising

Preface

MUCH has been written of the sufferings of foreigners in the recent Boxer uprising and correspondingly httle of the conduct of the Chinese Christians. At a recent meeting of the North China Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church it was decided to inquire minutely into the persecutions from the standpoint of the natives, in the belief that a more adequate understanding of their heroism would be a stimulant to the faith of the Church.

A committee was therefore appointed, and the native pastors were requested to gather up and forward reports of such cases as might be considered representative of the persecutions as a whole. To these reports were added such incidents in the lives of certain of the members as would contribute to a proper estimate of their character, and thus enable the. reader to see the persecutions in their proper settings. Some of these accounts were put in story form, others were strunsf together in the order in which they happened, and nearly all are given in the words of those who suffered.

We need not add that all were not equally faithful ; but as the world is not interested in

6 PREFACE

human failure, but only in success, we felt safe in recording- only the experiences of those who were true to the faith they professed, and assuring the reader that but a small proportion of the persecuted played the part of the coward — most of these under circumstances which would have tested the courage of either the reader or the writer. I. T. H.

Peking, July, 1902.

Contents

I'AGE

Ch'en Ta-yung — Gate Keci^er, Preacher, Martyr 9

Wang Ch'eng-p'ei — The Wheelbarrow Man and Martyr 30

II Teacher Wang was in earnest

He had learned from Ch'en what it was to be saved, and now, like the Philippian jailer, he was anxious to understand the process by which a man past middle life might attain that very desirable end. A long time they talked, and as he was croinof, well satisfied with what he had learned, the missionary called after him.

"Mr. Wang! Mr. Wang!"

"What is it ?"

" Should any further questions arise in your mind to perplex you, do not hesitate to call and allow me to help you solve them,"

" Thank you. I shall certainly do so."

" You will come and dine with me ? " said Pastor Chen, "and we can talk further about this matter."

Teacher Wang did so.

It seemed singular to him that a foreigner who looked so savage, with black beard all over his face, and a Chinese whom he had never seen before should take such a personal interest in him. At first he wondered if they were not influenced by selfish motives. " But what selfish motives," he asked himself, " could they have in a man who is as poor as I am } "

He called ag-ain and ao-ain. He followed the missionary's instructions, spending much of his time in prayer, and it was not long until he began to see the light.

" How long do you expect to remain in Peking.?" the missionary inquired of Mr. Wang after he had stepped into the light.

" I do not know ; perhaps not long."

" Would you be willing to remain here and take the position of chapel keeper for a few months } "

"What duties would I have to perform?"

"Your principal duties would be to live in the street chapel and testify that Christ is able to save men, because he has saved you, and converse with men as Ch'en conversed with you."

" I will do so."

After a few months it was evident to the missionary that Teacher Wang understood the religion he professed, and he advised that he return to his home in Shan-tunor and there witness among his friends to the Saviour he had found while in the capital.

Ill

"Tell us about your trip," said Mrs. Wang to her husband the first morning after his return.

It was Sunday, and he gathered his family about him for prayers. After reading and expounding a passage of Scripture he told them about his trip, his meeting with the missionary, his newly-found Saviour, and the joy and peace that came to him in believing ; and then he urged both his wife and children to follow his example.

After prayer he read a hymn in which was the couplet,

You who seek tlie tlirone of grace, Do not delay.

The words for delay were cJiih yen, not very unlike the words cliiJi yen, which mean to use tobacco, and when he read the hymn his wife understood it thus :

You who seek the throne of grace, Do not use tobacco, and she immediately threw away both pipe and tobacco, and began an enthusiastic crusade against the use of the weed among her neighbors.

"Are there any foreign woman-teachers who beheve in Jesus among those who taught you ?" she inquired of her husband.

" Several of them," he replied.

" How would it do for me to go and ask them to teach me } "

"Not now," he replied; "wait till I ask the missionary."

Teacher Wang began at once the preaching of the Gospel through the whole neighborhood. He had many friends among the scholars and he made them his especial care. He went from village to village carrying with him copies of the books which had been given him to read and from which he trained much of his instruction. He was especially attached to the Gospels and Epistles, and made them his constant companions. Being a teacher, and widely known in that part of the province, he had no difficulty in obtaining access to the homes. Like Paul, or like his own great ancestor Confucius, he found many who were ready to entertain him because of the wisdom of his instruction and conversation ; like Paul also, many of his friends w^ithdrew from him because of the strange doctrines with which he had allied himself

" Howbeit certain men clave unto him and believed."

IV

" You must go to Pekinof for more books," said Teacher Wang to his son Ch'eng-p'ei after he had been preaching for a few weeks.

"How shall I go?" inquired Ch'eng-p'ei.

" Take vour wheelbarrow," said his father, " in order that the trip may be as inexpensive as possible."

He gave his son a diary of the work already done, in which were included the names of eighteen persons who desired to join the church on probation, most of whom were his own friends or relations,

" I first preached to the members of my own family," he afterwards explained, "believing that if I could not convince them I could have little hope of winning strangers."

Wang Ch'eng-p'ei, unlike his father, was not a scholar. Like Shun he had followed the plow, or pushed the wheelbarrow, and with the latter he went to the capital, a distance of four hundred miles. He remained only a few weeks, which he spent in the study of the Scriptures, and with his wheelbarrow-load of books he returned to his home, but not until he had first obtained a promise that some of the missionaries would visit them in Shan-tung and hold a service amonof them.

When the missionaries came they were accompanied by Ch'en Ta-yung the preacher and

WANG— THE WHE1:LBARR0W MAN 39

Yang Ssu the carter, two men whose history will ever be interwoven with the history of the North China Mission.

Yang Ssvi, tWe Carter

" Where is your father ? " they inquired of Ch'eng-'pei, when he called at the inn.

" He is on a preaching and book-selling tour in the country," answered the son, "but I will go for him at once." ♦

Unhitching his donkey from the plow he jumped astride it and was soon tracing- the donkey paths through the fields from village to village in search of his father.

The latter was in the habit of sfoinor to all the villages within a radius of twenty miles to tell the glad tidings of salvation, and as he was seven miles away at this time it was some hours before they returned. He was delighted to see the missionaries, and, like all Chinese after having come in contact .with foreigners, he was not satisfied with the native method of salutation but clutched their hands in a manner as cordial as it was awkward.

Sunday was a red letter day in Teacher Wang's home. His son was baptized and the two were received into full membership in the church, while his wife, son's wife, daughter, nephew and cousin were all received on probation. In the afternoon Ch'en Ta-yung preached, and the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered to a little company of believers all of whom were to play an important part in a small way in the establishment of the Church in China. Well might the missionary write :

" The day was one of encouragement, not more in what we actually enjoyed than in what it promised," as we shall see who follow the history of some of the members of this day's meeting.

The following day the missionaries started on the return trip, stopping at the village of Yang Ssu, the carter, long enough to perform the marriage ceremony for that functionary, after which he continued with them on the journey.

V

If I were asked what is the most important thing to be done in the establishment of Christianity in a heathen land I should say the establishment of Christian homes. God, when he undertook to people a world, did it by the establishment of a home. Again, when he undertook to save a world from the flood, he did it by saving a home. Once more, when he wanted to raise up a nation into whose minds and hearts he could commit his most precious revelation, he did it by raising up a God-fearing man and wife ; for Sarah was as important an element as Abraham in the making of the character of the Jewish people. Those who desire to know the difference between a man with a Christian wife and one with a heathen wife in a heathen land may study the history of Abraham and Lot, both of whom are alike called faithful. But while the record of the one is resplendent with honor that of the other may not be written. It was not unwise, therefore, for Teacher Wang to spend his first efforts in securing a home following.

" I hope you did not forget to ask the missionary if I might go to Peking to study," said Mrs. Wang to her husband on Sunday afternoon.

"I asked him, and he said you might go."

" When may I go ? "

" As soon as you are ready."

" I cannot leave you until you are stronger," said the woman.

This was not the first time reference had been made to Teacher Wang's health.

For years he had been in delicate health, and it was evident that his long trips in the country, sleeping in all kinds of homes and eating all kinds of food, was rapidly telling on his health. He was becoming weaker and weaker, but he was deaf alike to the pleadings of his family and to the advice of the missionaries that he should take more rest. He did take as good care of himself as he could, and his reply always was," I can live but a few years longer, and I must spend them in diligent service of my Master," and with these words he would enter upon another term of service.

Some months later, when the missionaries again visited his home, they lound the thread of life almost exhausted. They baptized the remaining members of his family and some of his friends, took the names of others on probation, and ten days after they had departed Teacher Wang left the service of the Master on earth for the association with Him in heaven, committing his work to his son, W^ang Ch'eng-p'ei, and his ever faithful wife, both of whom, however, were in sad need of preparation.

VI

"Children," said Mrs. Wang, after the remains of her husband had been carried to their last resting place, " you must be good to-day while mother is away."

" Where are you going, mother } " piped up her two little daughters.

" I am going to sell books and preach as your father did."

With this she bade good-by to the children, took the package of books she had wrapped up in a square of cloth, and departed upon her errand of love and service. She first visited the homes of relatives and friends, then the homes of neighbors, after which she went to sell her books and tell her story of redeeming grace in the adjacent villages. She met with no little opposition on account of her zeal and what some of her relatives and friends called her " craziness."

" You are insane, Mrs. Wang," they said ; " the words you speak are the words of a crazy woman."

" Was not my husband a scholar } " she asked.

" Quite right, he was a scholar."

" Did he not preach this doctrine } Did he not die believino; in this doctrine? Is he not in heaven now as a result of this doctrine } Was he crazy.'* No, my friends, I am not insane. I am trying to do the work my husband was not

M CHlxNESE HEROES

spared to do," and when the missionaries returned a few months later it was thus they found her carrying on the work of her husband.

They invited her to go to Peking to study, knowing that unless she could read she could not accomplish the ends she designed ; wherefore a few days after they had departed she took her son and her two little daughters and started on that long trip to the capital.

The girls were placed in school and the woman given rooms in another part of the court, and she began to study the Gospel of Matthew.

" Who ever heard of a woman as old as you learning to read ?'' said the gate keeper with a laugh.

"I will learn to read, no matter how difficult the task," answered Mrs. Wang.

It was only a short time after this when, inquiring the name of a certain character, she was told,

"Why, that is your own name;" and she adds, " I discovered how^ ignorant I was, and prayed the Lord for help and set to work with diligence."

For seven months she continued at her books. At the end of this time she was able to read the gospel, and she then asked to return home and spend a year in the active service of soul-saving. Then she entered upon her studies once more ; and as the years passed she continued a part of the time in study and a part in traveling over

Shan-tung and Chih-li provinces and her testimony at present is — for she still lives :

" It has been twenty-four years since I accepted Christianity, during- which time it has been impossible for me to measure the grace given me. I am now seventy-five years old, and I would that all who read this would join with me in praising the Lord that every member of my family is safely within the fold."

VII

" No, you cannot go farther in the cart," said Wang Ch'eng-p'ei to his mother the first time he took her from Pekintr to Shan-tuno^.

They had started from Peking in a Chinese cart but before going far upon their way the cart tipped over and Mrs. Wang was thrown out upon the road, receiving very serious injuries.

"But what will we do? "inquired his mother.

" I do not know what we will do, but you cannot cro on in this cart."

" I might ride a donkey," she suggested.

"You remain here while I go to the inn and see what arrangements I can make."

The distance to their home was almost four hundred miles. It was impossible for his mother to ride farther in the cart. Her injuries were such that the jolting of a springless cart, together with the agitation entailed by the recent accident, would be too much for the old woman's nerves, and the son was unwilling to run further risks with his mother. He remembered the instructions of his own sacred books. He remembered the primers he had learned in his youth, wherein he was taught that,

To every instruction of parents you need To respectfully listen, with deference heed. Warm well their couch on the cold winter days, Fan their couch cool from the sun's scorching blaze.

But he remembered something more than this, something which with his new faith had a more powerful influence over him, and as he walked back to the inn he repeated, " Honor thy father and thy mother ; " and he said to himself,

" I will get a wheelbarrow and wheel her home. What matters it that the distance is four hundred miles! I brought a wheelbarrow-load of Bibles from Peking, why should I not wheel my mother } She is more precious even than^ — "

But he finished not the sentence. He soon secured a wheelbarrow^ and placing his mother on one side, and their effects (which consisted mostly of their bedding) on the other, he spent the following twenty-five days wheeling his mother home, a distance of nearly four hundred miles.*

*" Old Mrs. Wang has had another serious accident, probably making her a cripple for life. She lives with her son and is still abundant in labor that comes within her reach. Through her many women are hearing the Gospel." — Mintttes of h'orth China Conference, 1900.

WANG— THE WHEELBARROW MAX 47

VIII

' I am as happy as if I had a double-handful of cash," said one of Wang Ch 'eng-p'ei's little boys to the other as they played together in the court.

" Oh," said the other, with still greater glee, " I am as happy as if I had a double-handful of silver ! " and putting his hands together as he spoke he scooped them full of fine sand which he allowed to trickle down in a cone-shaped pile between his feet.

Their father had long ere this become a preacher and their grandmother, now an old woman, was spending the autumn of her life in the home of her son. She often told them about the time when the cart tipped over and their father wheeled her home, an incident that will ever be fraught with interest for the descendants of Wang Ch'eng-p'ei.

"And was papa a preacher then, grandma? " asked the boys.

" No, he was not a preacher, but he was studying to become a preacher."

" He could not do it now," said Ch'ing-p'ing, the younger of the two ; " he is too fat."

" But why are you so happy } " asked their grandmother.

" Well, you know, grandma, the missionary came to hold revival meetings here. He preached a whole week and still thought he had not moved the heart of any one, and last night when he sat down and asked if any one had anything to say, nobody said a word. I knew it was not proper for a boy to speak before the old men had spoken and so I waited a long time, though I wanted to confess my sins. But when no one made any confession 1 could stand it no longer and so I confessed,"

"And what had you to confess, my boy .f^ " asked his grandmother.

" Do you not remember, grandma, when you left me to attend my little sister .r^ "

"A few^ days ago } Yes."

" Well, I slapped her because she was mischievous, and it made me very unhappy, because, you know, she is little, and she cried."

" Was that all you had to confess ?" asked his grandmother, wondering at the little sins which disturb the mind of a child.

" No. The evening you sent me to the shop, to buy things, I could not get back until after dark and I was afraid. I said to myself, 'Jesus can take care of me as well in the dark as in the light,' but still I was afraid. I could not trust him. Of course we ought to trust Jesus; ought we not, grandma } "

" Certainly, my child."

"After brother and I had confessed our sins some of the big folks cried and the missionary looked as if he were crying too. 'Most everyone cried. Then the men confessed their sins, and they said very much, but more as if they were happy than sorry, and they sang,

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.

Then everybody shook hands with everybod}'' else, and cried, and laughed, and sang and said ' Praise the Lord,' and were very happy ; that is the reason brother and I are happy."

These confessions of the o-randchildren of old Teacher Wanor started arevival likewhich nothinor before had been known in China. The members of the church became new creatures. Others found Christ as a Saviour and entered the church. But, more important still, it was the precursor of a series of revivals which spread throughout all of North China, extending to other schools and churches and preparing both students and Christians for the persecutions which were soon to follow.